The kingdom of Hira (Hira) was established in the boundary land between the Euphrates and the Arabian desert, a district renowned for its good air and extr a ordinary fertility.
The chief town was Hira, a few miles south of the site of the later town of Kuf a.
These were Christians, whose ecclesiastical language was Syriac, though the language of intercourse was Arabic. A Christian bishop of Hira is known to have attended a synod in 410.
The kingdom of Hira was never really independent, but always stood in a relation of dependence on Persia, probably receiving pay from it and employing Persian soldiers.
The first certain prince of the Jafnid house was Harith ibn Jabala, who, according to the chronicle of John Malalas, conquered Mondhir (Mundhir) of Hira in 528.